Standards
NYS module line
- HDR 1. Human Growth and Development Across the Lifespan c)Demonstrate understanding of procedures required for the care of an infant or young child
CTE theme line
- CTE HSW 3. Personal Safety c)Summarize common causes of intentional and unintentional injury and describe associated prevention strategies
- CTE HSW 3. Personal Safety e)Develop safety plans and practice emergency responses
- CTE HSW 4. Classroom and Workplace Safety g)Understand and follow preplanned procedures in the case of accident or emergency
NYS FACS learning standard
- NYS FACS Learning Standard 2 (Intermediate)Key Idea: Students will know the basic principles of home and community safety. They can demonstrate the skills necessary to maintain their homes and workplaces in a safe and comfortable condition. They can provide a safe and nurturing environment for themselves and others.
Performance Indicator: Students know the basics of managing a safe and healthy home.
Performance Indicator: Students demonstrate the principles of safe and healthy childcare.
CDOS
- CDOS Standard 3aPersonal Qualities
National FCS 3.0
- National FCS 3.0 15.2.1Examine the nurturing habits that support a child's growth and development.
- National FCS 3.0 15.2.4Examine what abuse and neglect do to children and families, and how prevention works.
Content standard 4.4 (Demonstrate a safe and healthy learning environment for children, youth and adults) also fits, but its competencies were not extracted in the web research file, so it is not cited as a competency here.
Enduring understanding and essential question
Big idea: A babysitter's first job is to keep a child safe. Most of that is knowing a short list of rules before anything happens and knowing exactly what to do if something does. This lesson is that list. It is not medical training, and a real babysitting course is the next step.
Essential question: What has to be true before you say yes to watching someone's child?
Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- (Low) Given the seven babysitter safety rules (never leave a young child alone; safe sleep is back to sleep in an empty crib; never shake a baby; small objects and choking foods stay out of reach; water and stairs are the two places you never look away; in an emergency call 911 and know the address and the parent's number; know when to say no to a job), state all seven and explain why each exists.
- (Mid) Given a written description of a home, walk through it room by room and identify at least eight hazards for a toddler with a fix for each, then fill an emergency card with every line a 911 dispatcher or a parent would need.
- (High) Given four "should you take this job" scenarios, judge for each whether a 12 to 14 year old should say yes, yes with conditions, or no, and defend the judgment using the rules.
Vocabulary
Tier 2 (general academic): hazard, emergency, supervise, condition
Tier 3 (FACS): safe sleep, choking hazard, childproof, 911, emergency card, babysitting course. See the unit vocabulary list (Vocabulary 03.md) for Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Materials and setup
- Handout, one per student:
Handout 03.17 - Babysitter Safety Walk and Emergency Card.md(the seven rules, the described home for the safety walk, the emergency card, and the four job scenarios) - Slides:
Slides 03.17 - Babysitting Basics Safety Safe Sleep Emergencies - A toilet paper tube (the choke test: anything that fits through it can choke a child under 3), one per pair, plus a handful of safe objects to test (a large block, a tennis ball, a bottle cap, a grape-sized bead, a coin, a marker cap)
- An empty shoebox "crib" with a small blanket, a stuffed animal, and a pillow, for the safe sleep demonstration (what comes out)
- The American Red Cross Babysitting Basics course information on one slide [Sal: check the current course name, format, age minimum (11 at last check), and local availability; the Red Cross also lists local chapters]
- Setup notes: put a tube and the test objects at each pair. Stage the shoebox crib with everything wrong in it. No child, doll, or infant simulator is used. No allergy check needed (nothing is eaten; the food examples are on a slide).
Pre-assessment
Lesson 3.16's exit cards show whether students hold the eight caregiver jobs. Today narrows to the five a babysitter does and adds the safety rules. The do now asks who has watched a younger child; the hand count tells you how many students are already doing this job without the rules.
Do now and hook (Time: 5 min)
On the board: "Have you ever been left in charge of a younger child, even for ten minutes? Yes or no. If yes, write one thing you were worried about. If no, write one thing you think you would worry about."
Debrief: hand vote on yes. Collect four worries on the board (they cry, they get hurt, they will not listen, something breaks). Then the hook: "Every worry on this board has a rule. There are seven. By the end of today you will know all seven, and you will know when the right answer to 'can you babysit Saturday' is no."
Procedure
| Step | Teacher will | Students will | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Direct instruction: the seven rules | Show the rules one at a time, each with the why and one picture. (1) Never leave a young child alone, not for a minute, not to answer the door; take them with you. (2) Safe sleep: a baby sleeps on their back, in a crib or bassinet, on a firm flat mattress, with nothing else in it: no blanket, no pillow, no stuffed animal, no bumper. Empty the shoebox crib in front of the class, item by item, saying why each comes out. (3) Never shake a baby, ever, no matter how long they cry; a baby who will not stop crying goes down safely in the crib and you step out of the room for two minutes and breathe, then check; then you call the parent. (4) Small objects and choking foods: do the tube test with the objects at each pair; show the choking food list on the slide (whole grapes, hot dogs, hard candy, nuts, popcorn, chunks of raw carrot or apple) and the rule that a child under 4 eats sitting down with an adult watching. (5) Water and stairs: a child can drown in two inches of water; the bath is never left, not for a towel; stairs get a gate or a hand. (6) Emergency: call 911 first for anything you cannot handle; know the address (say it on the card); know the parent's number and one backup; then call the parent. (7) Know when to say no (Step 4). | Copy the rules. Do the tube test and sort the objects into "fits" (danger) and "does not fit." | 12 min |
| 2. Learning activity: the safety walk | Read the described home on the handout aloud once (a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom, a back door and yard, described in plain sentences with the hazards written into the description). Pairs walk it room by room on paper, circling every hazard for a toddler and writing the fix. Circulate with the clipboard (see Check for understanding). Reveal the key on the slide at the end. | Circle, write the fix, count. Check against the key. | 9 min |
| 3. Practice: the emergency card | Show the card: the address of the home (street, town, apartment number, cross street), the parent's name and cell, a backup adult's name and number, the child's name and age, allergies and medicines, where the first aid kit is, where the parents will be and when they are back, the poison control number (1-800-222-1222), and 911. Say: you fill this out with the parent before they leave, every time, even if you have been there before. Students fill it for the fictional family on the handout. | Fill the card from the family's information box. | 5 min |
| 4. Learning activity: should you take this job? | Show the four scenarios on the handout (a neighbor's 6 year old for two hours while the parent is next door; a 4 month old baby overnight; a 3 year old and a 5 year old for four hours with the parent reachable by phone; a friend's cousin, unknown ages, house you have never been in, parent's number not given). Pairs judge each: yes, yes with conditions, or no, and write the rule that decides it. Then the general rule for 12 to 14 year olds: short jobs, a child old enough to talk, a parent you know and can reach, a house you have seen, daylight or early evening, and no infants overnight. Show the Red Cross Babysitting Basics course slide as the next step and say plainly that this lesson is not that course and is not medical training. | Judge the four. Write the deciding rule for each. Copy the course name. | 5 min |
Questions to ask
Monitor understanding:
- What is the only safe position for a baby to sleep in, and what is in the crib?
- A bottle cap fits through the tube. What does that mean?
- What are the first three things a 911 dispatcher will ask you?
Deepen learning:
- Why do we say "never shake a baby" out loud in a class where nobody would ever mean to hurt a baby?
- The parent says "the baby always sleeps on her stomach, she likes it." What do you do?
- Which of the four job scenarios would you be most tempted to say yes to, and what is the rule that should stop you?
Check for understanding
Clipboard checklist during Step 2, one line per pair: "finds the water hazard (the bucket) and the stairs hazard," "finds at least one choking hazard and one poison hazard (the cleaner under the sink)," "every circled hazard has a fix that a babysitter could actually do (move it, close it, gate it, stay with the child), not 'tell the parents to renovate.'" A pair that misses the bucket gets the question "where is the water in this house?"
Closure (Time: 4 min)
3-2-1 exit card on the handout: 3 of the seven rules, 2 things that must be on the emergency card, 1 job scenario you would say no to and why. Three students read their "1." Sort into "got it" and "needs more." Every card must have "never shake a baby" or "back to sleep, empty crib" in the "3" line or it goes in "needs more" regardless.
Differentiation and supports
- ELL: the seven rules have a picture each on the slides and the handout; the described home has a simple floor plan sketch next to the text so hazards can be circled on the picture; the emergency card is a form with labels, not prose; the words safe sleep, choking, water, stairs, emergency, and address are listed in Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish on the handout (marked [check with a native speaker]); 911 works in any language and the slide says so.
- IEP and 504 (general): the safety walk is done in pairs with one reader and one writer; a student may circle hazards on the sketch instead of writing them; the emergency card can be filled with the information box next to it (it is); extended time; the four scenarios can be reduced to two.
- Grade 6 support: the safety walk covers three rooms (living room, kitchen, bathroom); the job scenarios are the first two only.
- Grade 8 stretch: all five rooms plus the yard; grade 8 pairs also write a two-sentence "what I would say to the parent before they leave" script that asks for every line on the emergency card, and answer the "baby sleeps on her stomach" question in writing.
- UDL checkpoint used: multiple means of representation (rules as pictures, the home as text and sketch, the tube test as a physical check) and multiple means of action and expression (circle, write, or say the fix).
- No-kitchen or no-machine alternative: none needed. If no tube or objects are available, the choke test is done from the slide with the objects drawn to size.
Assessment
| Objective | Standards met | Learning task | Assessment (formative or summative; tool) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. State the seven rules and why each exists | HDR 1. c); HSW 3. c); Std 2 PI A; National FCS 15.2.1, 15.2.4 | Step 1 | Formative; exit card "3" line, with the two non-negotiables required |
| 2. Find eight hazards with fixes and fill the emergency card | HDR 1. c); HSW 3. e); HSW 4. g); Std 2 PI B | Steps 2 and 3 | Formative; clipboard checklist; handout checked against the key |
| 3. Judge four job scenarios with the rule that decides each | HDR 1. c); CDOS 3a Personal Qualities; Std 2 KI | Step 4 | Formative; scenario lines checked against the key |
All three objectives are assessed summatively on the Unit 3 Test (safe sleep, the choking rule, the emergency card lines, and one job scenario). Objective 2's safety thinking is the safety checklist in Project 03.
Homework
None. Optional: fill a blank emergency card for a fictional home of your own design. Never a real address on a paper that comes to school.
Connections
Inside the building: the school nurse, who can take Step 1's safe sleep demonstration and say it in her own words; the health teacher, who covers CPR or first aid in some middle schools [Sal: ask; if health teaches hands-only CPR, this lesson does not need to]. Community: the American Red Cross Babysitting Basics course (local chapter or online) as the named next step; the local library or community center sometimes hosts it. [Sal: if your school has a partnership with a hospital or a youth bureau, a babysitter course on site is a real thing to ask for.]
Sources
- NYS Middle Level CTE FACS Content Module 02, Human Development and Relationships (nyctecenter.org, June 2018), line 1. c). Copy in
02 Standards/NYS Module PDFs/. - NYS Middle Level CTE Theme Module, Health, Safety, and Wellness, lines 3. c), 3. e), and 4. g). Same folder.
- NYS Learning Standards for Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences (1996), Standard 2, Intermediate, FACS strand, PIs on childcare and a safe and healthy home. Wording per
02 Standards/STANDARDS SOURCES - web research.md, section 2. - National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education 3.0 (LEAD FCS Education, 2018), competencies 15.2.1 and 15.2.4.
- Safe sleep guidance: the American Academy of Pediatrics safe sleep recommendations (back to sleep, firm flat surface, nothing in the sleep space) and the NICHD Safe to Sleep campaign. Choking hazards and the small-parts test: the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's small parts guidance (the toilet paper tube is the common home stand-in for the small parts cylinder). Poison control: 1-800-222-1222. [Sal: confirm each against the current source before the slide is printed; guidance changes.]
- American Red Cross Babysitting Basics course information (redcross.org). [Sal: check the current name and age minimum.]
- Sal's own materials: his FNES 782 infant care work exists only as a description; this lesson is written fresh.
Teacher notes
- If time runs short, cut the safety walk to three rooms and the job scenarios to two. Never cut the shoebox crib demonstration or "never shake a baby"; those two are the reason this lesson exists.
- This lesson is not medical training. It does not teach CPR, the Heimlich, or first aid beyond "call 911." Say that to students and say it on the slide. The Red Cross course is where those skills are taught, and a 12 to 14 year old who is going to babysit should take it.
- "Never shake a baby" is said plainly, once, with the why (a baby's neck and brain cannot take it, and the damage is permanent) and the what-instead (down safely in the crib, step out, two minutes, breathe, check, call the parent). It is not dramatized.
- The toilet paper tube test: anything that fits through is a choking hazard for a child under 3. Students remember the tube better than the list.
- The general rule for 12 to 14 year olds (short jobs, a child who can talk, a parent you know and can reach, a house you have seen, daylight or early evening, no infants overnight) is this course's rule, not a law. New York State has no minimum babysitting age in law. Say that; the rule is about what a middle schooler is ready for, not what is legal.
- A student may say something in this lesson about their own home. Have the building's reporting steps in front of you and follow them, the same as in Lesson 3.12.
- [Sal: the Red Cross slide needs the current course format and cost. Their online version has been about $40 to $50 in recent years; check before you put a number on the slide.]